Contents

Legality

I was under the impression that it's perfectly legal to visit Cuba, the only hitch being that it's illegal to spend any money as that would violate the sanctions...? Jpatokal 22:03, 21 Sep 2004 (EDT)

It's all explained (using gratuitously threatening language) in the US State Department link [1] I added. Generally though, I suspect they only go after conspicuous violators like peace activists. (I should probably add similar notes to North Korea and Iran, since I believe they are also on the "thou shalt not visit" list). -- Colin 23:46, 21 Sep 2004 (EDT)

I was under the same impression that Jpatokal had. I thought the only legal way to get in is if a non-US resident paid for trip, however, the American traveler would be prohibited from repaying the costs or working them off. Sapphire 23:43, 15 Apr 2005 (EDT)

That is strictly correct - though the traveller would need to prove they had not spent money (onus on them, not the US government). -- Beardo 01:11, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

Related links

Cuba Maps — Maps of all the provinces of Cuba, and maps of the major cities.]

Visas and legal issues

It was wrongly stated that the tourist card fee is payable on departure. There is a separate CUC 25 departure tax.

It is stated "Usually, your travel agency will give you a discount of those 25 CUC when booking an holiday arrangement." I don't believe that is true, and intend to delete the statement unless others can say that it is correct.

It was stated that the tourist card can be extended twice - again, not true - only one extension. (Unless everyone else that writes has got it wrong.)

By car

Money

I have taken out "Some advise to take Euros (EUR), because EUR exchange rate seems to be about 10% better than of US dollars. (Official rate in December 2005 was 1CUC=1.04 EUR=0.89 USD (before surcharge)). However taking the exchange rates between the USD and EUR into account the actual difference is only 5% and then still you have to pay commission when exchanging your USD into EUR." because it was confusing, may change from week to week and was a written from a US point of view.